I've imported 200+ PDFs and I want to have this custom column of mine have values from 001 to 200. Is there a simple way to do this via editing metadata in bulk? I'm obviously new to this and lost. Please point me to an area/topic where might be explained, if do-able. Thanks so much!

I've imported 200+ PDFs and I want to have this custom column of mine have values from 001 to 200. Is there a simple way to do this via editing metadata in bulk? I'm obviously new to this and lost. Please point me to an area/topic where might be explained, if do-able. Thanks so much!

The only way to do this is the one suggested by speakingtohe: use a custom series column and number the series starting at one. The reason: the template language has no way to access information for other books in the library and no way to update columns.

If you are python-literate then you could write a plugin to do it. For all I know an existing plugin might be able to do something like what you want.

If you have the books and the number you want for each in something like a CSV file, then you could use the Import List plugin to do such an update. If you don't have such a CSV, you could export the books using the catalog function in calibre to such a file, then add the column with your desired values and then reimport it using Import List.